NATIONAL DEFENCE.
PEACE holds the civilized world ; on the borders only, in bar- barous or savage regions, is peace interrupted. Yet men talk and act as if war were imminent. France and England, comer- . vators of the peace in Europe, keep on measuring their. awards from time to time, each to see that the other do not have an ad- vantage if there should be war. A French paper, understood to be published under the sanction of the Prince De Joinville and to represent his -views, has a long comparative account of the two navies; whence the writer deduces the general conclusions, that the English excel the French in the bonStruction of the smaller vessels of war, though not in frigates or ships-of-the-line; that they also excel in the number of the larger ships ; and that on the whole the strength of the French navy is about one-third that of the English navy. The writer calculates that France could at short notice send to sea 17 ships (7 three-deckers) and 23 frigates, to oppose 43 English ships (12 three-deckers) and 21 frigates ; the French having further in reserve 25 ships and 17 frigates; the English, 22 ships (7 three-deckers) and 11 frigates. In the class of three-deckers, the French would oppose 74 or 80 guns to 120. Hence the writer would have France bestir herself in strengthening the larger class of her navy. This view indi- cates some change of counsel since the Prince De Joinville de- manded an efficient steam-marine as the way to steal upon Eng- land in the night ; but no change in the animus which keeps watch upon French means to do England an injury on opportu- nity. There are in fact two classes in France against whom we, and the French nation also, have to guard,—those who are in- flated with some of the higher notions of military " glory," and would gladly convert the world into one theatre of war in order to the display of national or personal prowess ; and those possess- ing a meaner spirit of nationality, which consists in hating other countries, and would be content merely to do England a mischief. Although war is for the present at a discount in France, both those classes keep the embers alive for times more favourable to their passions.
And truly, our coasts, as everybody has seen for many a year, are defenceless enough. Once they were defended by our wooden walls—our navy ; but that was when no nation could contend with us at sea : now France has her floating forts and running bridges. The Channel has come to be merely a great river, and it can no longer rest for defence on a moveable force going up and down : its bank must be fortified. The Government, urged by the general sense of our exposure to unforeseen malevolence, has just begun to take steps for putting our coasts in that state that they ought always to exhibit; and the French are displeased ! " Some displeasure," says the Times, " was expressed in Paris at the orders given by the English Government for defensive works on the coast : the labours on the fortifications of Cherbourg are
unceasing; while, by means o o. wate al. . -r works, Havre ana- every other-port of France is to be Litr-eitgthenett."-- This is a monstrous exaction—that we should manifest our friendship for France by remaining inert even while she collects arms and holds the sword suspended in air ! It is due to the peaceable and judicious part of the French nation that we should be prepared to check the unpeaceable. A war would be nearly as bad for France as for England, even at the outset ; but while the exposed condition of our coasts seems to invite
ession and insure victory to the aggressors, the peaceable and judicious will not always be able to keep " la gloire " under control.
Especially it behoves us to be upon our guard while we have domestic traitors—the unrepudiated leaders of the Irish, who boast that they have at our rear seven millions of constructive allies for any enemy that we may have abroad—a multitude within our lines fermenting with the leaven of treason. It is not surprising, therefore, that the most peaceable among us talk of strengthening our position—that our light reading is invaded by papers on " the defensible state of the country," and that Go- vernment respond with a modicum of tardy preparation. If we are to trust the words of hatred flung at us East and West, our coast should be made a rampart, our people an army. Our people an army Ay ; for no lifeless works can keep out hordes of eager spoilers, and it is the presence alone of a brave people—strong and skilled as well as brave—that can vindicate our soil against violation. We remember, alas ! that the habits of the English people are not what they once were. The spirit of money-getting has toiled the strength out of our townsfolk : archery once borrowed its terms from the weaver's craft as well as from the field, because the weaver was familiar with the na- tional weapon, was one of the band that handled it, and named the missile after the cloth-yard of his own trade. What knows he now of the bow's substitute, the musket or rifle—pent up for all his waking time in a factory I Even among our rustics, poverty and ceaseless "industry" have cramped the faculties, and the "better observance of the Sabbath" has forbidden manly sports in the only remaining time of leisure. We allude to the effect with regret, though with no desire to reproach the conscientious whose exhortations have been attended by a deplorable and unin- tended incident. We may call to mind that while the Sunday was still a holyday, England was not less virtuous than she is now, not less Christian, not even less Protestant—for she had protested before the sway of the Puritans began. Statistics have been laboured to show that the condition of the poor has not deteriorated in modern times. Perhaps not—statistically. But the poverty of a young country, with ith wild lands—the pre- carious existence of a ruder people, now full now starving, half lawless—is a very different thing from the level low wages and short commons of an enclosed country with its workhouse. Our good taste has even put down prizefighting—the odious, corrupt remnant of manly sports ; and we have given nothing instead. Are the people so ready, so quirk as they once
with quarter-staff or single-stick—so fierce f We be we need them to be readier and firmer on occasion ; gress of knowledge has brought t' e stranger nearer proportion of one day to a month, and has nbt yet ta
stranger to desire only peace. There is, no doubt, still glish spirit—call it " bottom," "pluck," "grit," or what ya will—which would make even the Manchester weaver a " tough customer" : but the object is to at the whole race of men i once more in possession of all their bodily faculties ; of which long hours and " better observance " have been the chief means to deprive them.
A people thus trained would furnish materials for a formidable militia ; whom a magazine tactician° would call out again now,
is keep to their standards for a six-months drill. The people, it s said, do not like "soldiering." Let it be done in a more intelligent spirit than it has been : make it more of a pastime, less of an irksome burden ; equalize the duty over all classes ; couple it with holydays and honours and political privileges : let the people be taught that it is needful, honourable, and not unpleasant; and, although they may never arrive at the perpetual military ardour of the French, they may furnish a national guard as well appointed, efficient, and bold, as the million that are in possession of France.
But, it is said, if "the people" are armed and drilled, the authorities cannot "keep them down." Why, they do not keep them down as it is. It was not soldiery, but returning prosperity and hope, that put down the Manchester rioters. If any real attempt were made to "keep down" the people by force, it would be a mere provocative to the irrepressible rising of the whole nation. Armies may fight battles, invade, and injure ; it is the people that must defend the soil ; and that Government will always be the "strongest" which derives its strength from the strongest people. Till war be abjured by other races and classes as well as English merchants and shopkeepers, we should like to see a rifle and a sword in every house, with leisure to exercise them, and encouragement for hardy games—something rougher than cricket—even on the Sunday green ; the plain serviceable uniform of a militia more familiar than the workhouse costume ; every cliff and every strand fortified against sudden intrusion. * Fraeer'e Magazine, November 1845: " The Defensible State of the Country." JandY
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